Talking to David Koechner and Owen Benjamin About the Splitting Hairs Comedy Tour and ‘Anchorman 2’

David Koechner has teamed up with fellow Saturday Night Live alum Abby Elliott and Owen Benjamin, standup and star of TBS’s Sullivan and Son, to tour the country via bus with a branded comedy tour called Splitting Hairs, sponsored by AXE Hair in association with Comedy Central. I recently had the chance to speak with David Koechner and Owen Benjamin while they were all riled up from being on a tour bus for a long time. We discussed the tour and the long-awaited sequel to Anchorman, which David Koechner says might maybe possibly be out in theaters next Christmas.

So, what can people expect from the Splitting Hairs comedy tour?

Owen Benjamin: David Koechner here, who’s an American treasure, moderates between myself and Abbey Elliottt versus the difference between men and women. AXE Hair did a survey and they found that women’s first impressions with me were usually based around hair. There’s a lot of things you can’t change about yourself, but your hair, you can change.

David Koechner: So, I’ve cried myself to sleep the last three months.

Benjamin: Because David’s hair isn’t as thick as it once was. It’s receding like the Sahara.

Koechner: It’s more skin than hair.

Benjamin: We’re doing five cities, and I do some standup. Koechner goes up. We do sketches, we debate. We have funny videos. We get the audience involved.

Koechner: There’s music. There’s song. Big finish.

Benjamin: And we all have fun. Have some drinks after, high-five. A lot of time on the bus. That why we’re really wound-up right now. A lot of espresso.

Koechner: Honestly, we’re a branded tour. People are having a ball. They’re having a blast. You’ve got what a lot of people call “Big Bear” – Owen Benjamin.

Benjamin: That’s me.

Koechner: Gettin’ that grill nice and hot!

Benjamin: Abby brings the beauty. Koechner brings the aggression.

Koechner: And volume.

Have you guys ever performed together before this?

Koechner: Kinda did. Abby and I did an episode of King of the Hill together years ago, but the three of us had never performed together.

Benjamin: I met David once at The Improv in Hollywood. He told me I had a good set, and I felt good about it. I was happy.

Koechner: Is that true?

Benjamin: Yeah. You said, “Hey man, good set.” I wanted to say, “I know” because that’s what I would have said, but then I recognized you from Anchorman. I blushed.

So, David, are you excited for Anchorman 2?

Koechner: I’m very excited. We’d been waiting for years to get the green light, so when the green light came last March, Will [Ferrell] announced it immediately before the script was even written… We start filming at the end of February/beginning of March and it might be out in December 2013. That’s what I think. It could possibly release 2013.

I hear there’s a big musical number in the movie? Can you talk at all about that?

Koechner: Oh, if McKay said that, then you can reprint that. I’m not gonna say a thing because I think someone’s gonna come down and go, “Hey listen, don’t you say things about the movie.” In Hollywood, they protect a lot of things these days, so if McKay says that, then we go with that. McKay is the only guy who I’ll say “comedy genius” about. That term is thrown around…

Benjamin: Sitting right here, David.

Koechner: … far too often. There’s only a couple guys, and one of them is Adam McKay. And the other one’s initials are not the same as Adam’s. I don’t want to embarrass anybody in the room. Abby Elliott.

PR person: But there are musical numbers in Splitting Hairs…

Koechner: To bring it back to home, bring it back to message, we do play at the show a musical number that you can not help but sing the next day. And even we’re singing it. We go, “Oh no, I started.”